Explaining recession

fc123

Phirefly wrote: »

Gosh thats all a bit too close to home! Its all very incestuous round this way, your supplier is probably the brother's mother's monkey's uncle of my director... reminding me I really should keep closer council! Interestingly, and relevant to the thread, last year I was looking into setting up my own label too, but my sense that this is not the best time to be taking such a risk has had me going down a safer route for the time being.

You are right to be careful. The biggest difficulty for small labels is getting a decent ammount of stockists and, therefore, T/O from which you can take a profit.
They need to be appropriate to your work; you don't want to be sold in a discount/ crappy store plus you need to be sure that you will get paid for the delivery.
Due to the rapid decline in Indie clothing stores during the past 3 years (because of, amongst other things, rising rents and changing fashions /spending habits) it is hard to establish a network of customers...though there are still some out there always looking for fresh ideas and products to sell.

Traditionally (as I did) one shows at a suitable exhibition (we did TBC at Truman Brewery) and takes it from there . House of Fraser used to be a good customer but is now Bauger owned and deals mainly in all Bauger owned brands....changing times.

I would recommend direct retail in any way you can do it, whether markets (I mean ones like Spitalfields in London) or through your own store...and supplement with compatible bought in ranges (from China with higher margins....supplement the "true" work with the enemy work!)).

The big advantage is that 1; you get the whole mark up from cost in your hand so can give a better price to the customer but make more margin for yourself.
2; you sell an item and have the payment in your hand (not after 60 days).
3; a wicked garment in itself is not enough, so to create your own retail environment and marketing image is the way forward.
4; you can earn from an original idea for a few months (then sell it on-line if you choose) before the chains nab it for themselves...by that time you have a new idea to sell.

Sorry to hijack the recession thread but a few shop owning tips could be useful to someone else too!

As generali et al brought out all my negatives, I should add that we took some risks over the years that had profitable outcomes......running ones own business is like a continuous zig-zag (up + down) throughout.

This got hijacked by R. Gervais but I think it is V true

"You didn't realise you were in a trough until you climbed out".
"You didn't realise that you were on the the top of the hill until you slid down it".

fc123

sniperpenguin wrote: »

May I be the first person to point out that there is another luxury left in that sentence.... the school fees

I know I know! And I am a full paid up DFW too.:o I am not going to defend it (as the post will be zzzzzzzzzzzz) but with the bursary they nearly add up to what we used to waste on other things.
We live on beans and raw veg (which, according to Heat mag, is THE celeb diet ) and I don't have telly, freezer, microwave, gadgets, tumble drier and minimal furniture (as we rent unfurnished and my posessions are in my family home which is rented out).

It bothers me as we would be DF now if we didn't have them in the budget.....hence....let the recession just wait a little bit.....because, as I hope you will see from my posts, they would have to go if "needs as must".

Doesn't help we don't live in a catchment area.

Generali

Guy_Montag wrote: »

Just a thought. If I get together with 10 of my rich GHPC cyber-buddies. Can we tell the FSA we have £100k in soluble assets & join your game?

Well you could set yourself up as a 'fund-of-funds' which gets you round the thing of needing to have $100k and also (I think) the 'sophisticated investor' hurdle.

Then of course you'll need someone FSA registered as a Portfolio Manager. You'd need to do your quarterly returns to the FSA to prove your capital adequacy (tiers 1, 2 and 3). You'd need a tax advisor to do K1s for any US investors and you'd need an auditor to audit you accounts and a fund administrator to look after reconciling the Net Asset Value of the fund and your investor reporting. And a Prime Broker to hold your cash and your fund holdings. Also you'll need to do your KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, have an MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) and a CMP (Compliance Monitoring Program) and a BRP (Business Recovery Plan).

It's probably less effort to save up the $100k yourself and invest in us directly!

Phirefly

Generali wrote: »

Then of course you'll need someone FSA registered as a Portfolio Manager. You'd need to do your quarterly returns to the FSA to prove your capital adequacy (tiers 1, 2 and 3). You'd need a tax advisor to do K1s for any US investors and you'd need an auditor to audit you accounts and a fund administrator to look after reconciling the Net Asset Value of the fund and your investor reporting. And a Prime Broker to hold your cash and your fund holdings. Also you'll need to do your KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, have an MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) and a CMP (Compliance Monitoring Program) and a BRP (Business Recovery Plan).

I suspect my PhireFund would be considerably rosier could I understand that collection of letters and punctuation marks

Generali

Phirefly wrote: »

I suspect my PhireFund would be considerably rosier could I understand that collection of letters and punctuation marks

TBH it is complex and really needs to be so investors are protected properly.

Lots of it is just jargon and if I sat you in the office and explained for a few minutes and showed you the paperwork you'd understand quite easily. The real problem is understanding how it all fits together; where one responsibility starts and stops. You're on your own running something like this. It's not like working in a big bank where you've hundreds of lawyers, accountants, compliance officers etc to ask.

fc123

Generali wrote: »

Well you could set yourself up as a 'fund-of-funds' which gets you round the thing of needing to have $100k and also (I think) the 'sophisticated investor' hurdle.

Then of course you'll need someone FSA registered as a Portfolio Manager. You'd need to do your quarterly returns to the FSA to prove your capital adequacy (tiers 1, 2 and 3). You'd need a tax advisor to do K1s for any US investors and you'd need an auditor to audit you accounts and a fund administrator to look after reconciling the Net Asset Value of the fund and your investor reporting. And a Prime Broker to hold your cash and your fund holdings. Also you'll need to do your KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, have an MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) and a CMP (Compliance Monitoring Program) and a BRP (Business Recovery Plan).

It's probably less effort to save up the $100k yourself and invest in us directly!

So to clarify.......

I need FSA reg as a PM. Quarterly rtn to FSA to prove my CA (tiers 1 2 + 3). I need a TA to do K1's for US I's and an A to AYA and an FA to look after reconciling the NAV of the fund and my IR. And a PB to hold my cash and FH. NTK my KYC checks. have MLRO, CMP and BRP.

Or I could choose red or black? Sorry, not taking the P...just needed a mind game, couldn't help myself.;)


PS; just a note of thanks....I have decided to read less opinion and try a bit more fact (it's a bit like reading horoscopes..you recall the bits that are favourable to you).
I have to recommend "ENOUGH " by John Naish (it just came out yesterday and I demolished it in one sitting....will be recommending to some DFW posters)
It does acknowledge that one needs to provide a home / earn a living etc and it is written by a cosy "I earn from writing " type of chap) but it's not sandal wearing/tree hugging stuff.
Phirefly will love it...youth rejecting all marketing that bombards them etc and Gen...it could make a change from "Heat" on the train.:D

Got to tackle the other one tonight; CHINA and the West in the 21st century by Will Hutton.
The more one understands, the less the impact of the coming crisis.

Generali

fc123 wrote: »

So to clarify.......

I need FSA reg as a PM. Quarterly rtn to FSA to prove my CA (tiers 1 2 + 3). I need a TA to do K1's for US I's and an A to AYA and an FA to look after reconciling the NAV of the fund and my IR. And a PB to hold my cash and FH. NTK my KYC checks. have MLRO, CMP and BRP.

Or I could choose red or black? Sorry, not taking the P...just needed a mind game, couldn't help myself.;)


PS; just a note of thanks....I have decided to read less opinion and try a bit more fact (it's a bit like reading horoscopes..you recall the bits that are favourable to you).
I have to recommend "ENOUGH " by John Naish (it just came out yesterday and I demolished it in one sitting....will be recommending to some DFW posters)
It does acknowledge that one needs to provide a home / earn a living etc and it is written by a cosy "I earn from writing " type of chap) but it's not sandal wearing/tree hugging stuff.
Phirefly will love it...youth rejecting all marketing that bombards them etc and Gen...it could make a change from "Heat" on the train.:D

Got to tackle the other one tonight; CHINA and the West in the 21st century by Will Hutton.
The more one understands, the less the impact of the coming crisis.

The financial world is littered with TLAs - it keeps people from taking all the highly paid jobs shuffling paper around that don't know them!

There's an argument that China not being #1 economic nation has been an historical abberation over the past couple of hundred years and she's coming back to take her rightful place in the world. Personally I think Will Hutton is terrible; he's got a nose for the zeitgeist but has next to no insight. He's been pretty successful though so who am I to say...

I still reckon John Major's book on Cricket is one of the best to have been released in the past year. A cracker if it's your game or if you enjoy social history.

fc123

Generali wrote: »

The financial world is littered with TLAs - it keeps people from taking all the highly paid jobs shuffling paper around that don't know them!

There's an argument that China not being #1 economic nation has been an historical abberation over the past couple of hundred years and she's coming back to take her rightful place in the world. Personally I think Will Hutton is terrible; he's got a nose for the zeitgeist but has next to no insight. He's been pretty successful though so who am I to say...

I still reckon John Major's book on Cricket is one of the best to have been released in the past year. A cracker if it's your game or if you enjoy social history.

Oh dear! That was a waste of £4.99...could have spent it on a collagen face pack instead! And the bloke in Borders said it was good!
However, I could wade my way through it and then dismiss it as no good?

Best to stick with instinct I guess!

Generali

Read it and see what you think. I find that Mr H tends towards the populist left and as a result doesn't think through the consequences of his ideas or just doesn't do the research properly.

For example, IIRC he was strongly in favour the Tobin Tax, a tax of 1% on all FX transactions despite the catestrophic effect it would have had on international trade and the inability of govts to enforce and collect it as there is no FX Market in the way that there are stock markets or bond markets.

He just saw bankers getting rich on the back of a trade and wanted a piece of it for his social schemes without really thinking it through.

I also seem to recall a particularly dotty article a few years back in the Grauniad by him suggesting that $1=€1=Japanese Yen 100 should be fixed (it looked like that was going to be the relative exchange rate for a while) and imbuing it with some sort of quasi-mystical significance like the planets aligning or some such!

Maybe he's improved with age. I hope I haven't spoiled your read.

fc123

Generali wrote: »

Read it and see what you think. I find that Mr H tends towards the populist left and as a result doesn't think through the consequences of his ideas or just doesn't do the research properly.

For example, IIRC he was strongly in favour the Tobin Tax, a tax of 1% on all FX transactions despite the catestrophic effect it would have had on international trade and the inability of govts to enforce and collect it as there is no FX Market in the way that there are stock markets or bond markets.

He just saw bankers getting rich on the back of a trade and wanted a piece of it for his social schemes without really thinking it through.

I also seem to recall a particularly dotty article a few years back in the Grauniad by him suggesting that $1=€1=Japanese Yen 100 should be fixed (it looked like that was going to be the relative exchange rate for a while) and imbuing it with some sort of quasi-mystical significance like the planets aligning or some such!

Maybe he's improved with age. I hope I haven't spoiled your read.

The leftie stuff doesn't do it for me now....living it changes ones mind.

Feels like there is a gap in the writing world for a BBW (banker/broker/whatever) who made the money, jumped off the wheel and then writes / commentates from that life experience.....seems the academics and journalists resent the fact that, though they "know" it all, they also still have a bit of envy (even the so called leftie ones).

I will give it a go.....small writing too.

Try the John Naish one day.;)